Turning single axis on and off

My machine is a small horizontal boring machine with three axis DC servos and lead screws, which I would like to change to ball screws.
If I want to operate the machine manually, I simply turn everything off using the red button in axis (F2), but with ball screws I would need to enable/disable single axis using let's say hardware buttons. Would this be possible?
Currently I am using AXIS 2.9.8 with 7i92.
 

I would be possible to disable an axis in hal,, the difficulty is returning to LinuxCNC control
without either generating a following error or a dangerous situation where you get a fast
uncontrolled return to the axis position before the axis was disabled.